Archive for April, 2009

American industries were shocked when the FBI began investigating AIPAC for obtaining and distributing the 300 page report containing their trade secrets titled “Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty Free Treatment for U.S. Imports from Israel, Investigation No. 332-180” in the midst of the negotiations. The ITC later confirmed that the Israeli government also obtained the still-classified report. The document contains business confidential trade secrets, market share, inventory, delivery costs, internal production costs and other highly sensitive data US industries submitted under strict confidence to urge the best possible outcome for US businesses.

A legal filing to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) calls for suspension of the US-Israel Free Trade Area. …

A key legal exhibit reveals the ITC’s early response to formal complaints about intellectual property losses lodged by the US Bromine Alliance …

ITC confirmed that extremely sensitive company information solicited under “business confidential” provisions was included in a classified internal US government trade negotiation report. The FBI investigated how this report was subsequently obtained by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The Israeli government also obtained the classified report according to the ITC. ITC further confirmed that leaked data to AIPAC included “specific business confidential numbers extracted from the Alliance’s…production cost, raw material cost, depreciation or manufacturing cost, by product cost, and shipping cost for the compound TBBPA and…the length of time that sales of domestic TBBPA could be supplied from inventory.” …

Complaint #1: Member State Agencies (USTR and ITC), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Israeli
Government Violated the IP Rights of US industries, Associations and Workers during the 1984 Treaty Negotiations.

TAVAKOLI: Well, so far they’ve gotten away with the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of the capital markets …

LAMB: Gotten away with it?

TAVAKOLI: … It dwarfs. They’ve gotten away with it so far.

LAMB: Kept a lot of their own money?

TAVAKOLI: Yes. It dwarfs what Madoff did. …

This has been a huge crime on the American economy and so far, people aren’t being held accountable and we’re bailing out a lot of bad guys no questions asked. In some cases, we have to recapitalize the financial system, but the money that we’ve thrown in has, you know, been like throwing water on sand because we really needed to put some of these institutions into receivership. …

JERUSALEM — In a direct challenge to President Barack Obama’s commitment to rejuvenate moribund Mideast peace talks, Israel on Thursday dismissed American-led efforts to establish a Palestinian state and laid out new conditions for renewed negotiations.

Leaders of Israel’s hawkish new government told former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, the special U.S. envoy, that they aren’t going to rush into peace talks with their Palestinian neighbors. …

Mitchell made it clear that the Obama administration sees the two-state solution as the foundation for future talks. …

Netanyahu has refused to embrace that formula and has instead floated the idea of offering Palestinians limited rights that would fall short of independence. …

Franklin also allegedly relayed information to Gilon through Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He has resisted requests to testify in their defense. …

Gilon’s boss during his stint in Washington was Ambassador Danny Ayalon, currently the deputy foreign minister and a member of the Yisrael Beitenu Party led by Lieberman.

Wikipedia: The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is an American nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Boston which describes itself as a “media-monitoring, research and membership organization”. The organization was founded in 1982 by Winifred Meiselman in Washington, DC to respond to perceived anti-Israel bias in the Washington Post.

Senior U.S. officials in Washington and New York are leaning in favor of participating in the “Durban 2” UN-sponsored anti-racism conference scheduled to take place on April 20 in Geneva…

… Israel plans on boycotting the conference for fear that it will turn into a platform for singling out Jerusalem for criticism over its policies in the Palestinian territories.

Leading figures in the organized American Jewish community have been lobbying Western ambassadors and European diplomats in the UN to dissuade their governments from participating in the Geneva summit. …

Dozens of human rights groups and activists in the United States have petitioned President Barack Obama to rethink his decision to boycott the conference, expected by many countries to be used as a forum for criticizing Israel. ….

… Persecutory paranoia is defined as “the most prevalent type of paranoia; the patient makes himself believe that all those around him are his enemies, bent on harming him or even taking his life. In this delusion people of an aggressive temperament often turn dangerous killers.

A perfect fit for Israel. While America has been acting in a feeding frenzy for Israel’s paranoia, it can choose not to. According to mental health experts, “paranoia is incurable. The best course is to discharge the patient for the sake of the supporter’s health.” In short: leave Israel to its sickness.

CNI seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values, protects our national interests, and contributes to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as to restore a political environment in America in which voters and their elected officials are free from the undue influence and pressure of a foreign country, namely Israel.

The dispute between the United States and Israel over the razing of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem is intensifying and will likely become the first clash between the Obama administration and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. …

Haaretz is reporting that in recent days, officials from the Obama Administration have been briefing Congressional Democrats that they expect a clash with Israel’s new Netanyahu-led government over the Palestinian peace process. It was speculated that the briefing was an attempt to preempt an attempt by Netanyahu to bypass the administration and lobby Congress directly.

… “The Foreign Ministry itself is now pushing the idea, urging supporters of Israel everywhere to become cyberspace soldiers in the new battleground for Israel’s image.” …

… ‘The Register’ has described use of the software as “highly organized mass manipulation of technologies which are supposed to be democratizing” and claimed Megaphone is “effectively a high-tech exercise in ballot-stuffing”…

… software that functions like a beeper from one central place. They send alerts and anyone who downloads the software gets a pop-up with links to an activity. …